A few weeks ago, I co-chaired a session at the Society for Historical Archaeology 45th annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology. The session covered the research currently being conducted at Historic St. Mary’s City, spanning four centuries, three countries, and various topics. Mine was, unsurprisingly, a look at the 19th century and the transition from slavery to freedom for the black laborers who worked on the plantation. From what I could gather, the session and paper were well received. The highlight was definitely listening to Garry Wheeler Stone, the first director of Historic St. Mary’s City and an archaeological legend, discuss our papers. It was an honor to hear him talk.

In particular, my post looks at emancipation as a process that occurs over time, not as a “shotgun moment of liberation”. This approach allows me to consider enslaved laborer’s actions of resistance to be emancipatory, and connect them to similar actions through the Civil War and into the post-slavery era. In particular, I use the negotiations of space and place on and outside of the plantation to examine how life changes for the laborers.

If you’re interested, and have 17 minutes to spare, you can watch and listen to my presentation below:

About Terry Brock

Terry is an archaeologist who lives in Virginia with his fiancee and is writing his PhD at Michigan State University. In his spare time, he writes for Gradhacker, an Inside Higher Ed Blog, and tweets @brockter. His favorite thing he's ever written is Swimming Buddies and a Pipe Cleaner Necklace.

Nicely done. I like the format and even the sound quality was pretty good. Entertaining and educational. Looking forward to more of these – and you teaching me how to do this sort of thing in the future….
dave

http://terrypbrock.com Terry Brock

Dave, I will happily teach you how to do this! It’s actually pretty simple. As for sound quality: it was just me talking into my laptop built in mic. We need to sit down soon and chat about landscapes. I think we have a contribution to make, my friend!

http://terrypbrock.com Terry Brock

By the way, if you want to see a really wonderful video, you must check out this one. I don’t want to say I’m a cinematic genius, but…. http://vimeo.com/25564604